St. Paddy’s Day crept up on me this year. I didn’t have any Irish recipes planned for the day. But the more I went about my chores for the day, the more it bugged me that I wasn’t doing anything special. I had made Irish Cream at home before many years ago. I’d whipped up a batch for my Mother’s birthday and it went down a real treat. We had none leftover. So I thought the least I could do, was whip up a Batch of Irish cream for the day.

It is amazing how this beautiful liqueur comes together in minutes. You just need a few simple ingredients. Now you can definitely use an Irish Whiskey, if you have some on hand and it would be a more authentically Irish ‘Irish Cream’. But in a pinch, any whiskey will do.

I even made my own chocolate syrup for this recipe because I never have that stuff in the house. It turned out really well. Even my husband, the tequila loving man that he is, was impressed.

Whip up a batch for your next gathering and watch it disappear. You could also decant this Irish cream in little bottles, use a little ribbon or twine and a pretty tag and use them as hostess gifts or place them in gift baskets or hampers. I can tell you this much, I would be very happy to receive a gift like this. Step aside Bailey’s, you have some major competition now 😉

Since this recipe contains cream, the bottle needs to be refrigerated and should keep for 2 months, not that it will stick around that long. But you might want to include this information on your tag if you’re gifting this to someone.

While most of the times, you see recipes for St. Paddy’s day all decked out in green, I’m pretty sure Irish fare isn’t all green. Do correct me if I’m wrong. I’ve never been to Ireland, but hope to travel there someday. This year, I decided to treat myself and the husband to traditional Irish food. After looking through a few sites, I knew I would have to bake some Irish Soda Bread, but I wanted something quick to go with it. I happened upon a recipe for traditional Irish Colcannon. As luck would have it, I had all the requisite ingredients. So I had picked out the side dish for the evening. Now, I didn’t have the time to make anything elaborate for the main, so I just went with some sausages. I don’t know how Irish that is, but I can tell you this, it sure made for a delicious meal.

Many of you may not know this, but I can be very absent minded at times. For example, I was so sure I had taken pictures of the loaf of bread I baked, but actually I hadn’t. The bread was very easy and quick to put together. It was different compared to the regular yeasted breads, but I was happy with the way it turned out. I made a wholewheat soda bread this time around, but I’m quite eager to try out the white bread version too. We enjoyed this bread for dinner as well as for breakfast the next morning, with a smear of butter and some homemade Nectarine jam (recipe to follow). Later in the day when I sat down to edit the pictures and blog about it, it appeared I hadn’t taken pictures of the bread at all. ***Gasp*** I know!!! In the life of a blogger, that’s an absolute disaster. I figured, I would have to skip blogging about the bread this time around, atleast till I made this bread again and captured some pictures of it anyway. That’s when I realized, I still had one lonesome slice of the bread left. So please forgive the picture of the lone slice of soda bread.

On to the colcannon; nothing could be simpler to put together. Its a nice way to mix up mashed potatoes. I simply wrapped a couple of clean, washed and brushed potaotes – skin on, in some foil and put them in the oven with the bread and it was ready it by the time the bread was done. I didn’t think the combination of cabbage and potato would work, but I was wrong. This turned out really yummy. It had some nice flavor and texture from the cabbage and the onion. Typically, leftovers of mashed potato are used in the dish. I didn’t have any, so I just roasted some potatoes in the oven to use. You could make some mashed potatoes the regular way, by boiling the potatoes instead. Do what works best for you.

Our tribute to St. Patrick’s Day was a rather subdued one. What are you doing this year to celebrate this day. Leave me a comment, I’d love to hear more.